Where is Lion Witch and the Wardrobe Theatre?

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is a stage adaptation of the book of the same name by C.S. Lewis, the first installment of The Chronicles of Narnia. The play follows the 4 Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, who evacuate wartime London to stay in the countryside, where they find a wardrobe leading to the fantasy world of Narnia. The siblings learn that their arrival was prophesied and they must rally its inhabitants under Aslan to defeat the forces of Jadis, the White Witch.

The first production premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2017; another production was staged in 2019, premiering in London at the Bridge Theatre.

An updated iteration in the actor-muso style launched a UK tour in November 2021 starring Samantha Womack as the White Witch.[1] Following its success, it transferred to the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End in July 2022, where it will play a strictly limited season until 8 January 2023.

Productions[edit]

Leeds (2017)[edit]

The production premiered at the Quarry Theatre of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Produced by Elliott Harper Productions, the play was directed by Sally Cookson and designed by Rae Smith. Other creatives include movement director Dan Canham, puppetry director Craig Leo, aerial director Gwen Hales, and fight directors Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown.[2] The production featured Michael Jean-Marain, Patricia Allison, John Leader, and Cora Kirk as the Pevensies; Aslan is played by Iain Johnstone and the White Witch by Carla Mendonça. Aslan was portrayed by both a human actor and a large canopy-like puppet head that would be carried above by ensemble members.

London (2019)[edit]

The show made its off-West End debut in July 2019 at the Bridge Theatre in London. It is largely the same production that had premiered two years prior, with a majority of the creative team, including Cookson, reuniting in the rehearsal room.[3] The cast featured Femi Akinfolarin, Shalisa James-Davis, John Leader, and Keziah Joseph as the Pevensie children; Wil Johnson as Aslan, and Laura Elphinstone as the White Witch.

UK Tour/West End (2021–2023)[edit]

A new major production of the original Leeds show was announced in 2020. Directed by Michael Fentiman, the production is noted for employing the actor-muso approach, where the cast doubles as the orchestra. Though not a musical, the production adds a few songs and has a multi-disciplined cast of actors, singers, musicians, dancers, and puppeteers. Benji Bower's original score was expanded upon in development, with Fentiman bringing on Barnaby Race (with whom he had worked on Amélie) to the creative team. Other creatives include set and costume designer Tom Paris, choreographer Shanelle "Tali" Fergus, and illusion & magic consultant Chris Fisher.[4]

The puppet designs for Aslan and Schrödinger are by Max Humphries. Puppet direction is by Toby Olié, who said that the Aslan puppet design is "made of terra cotta– like a piece of ancient pottery as if he was there before anyone else".[5] Unlike its predecessor, the large puppet consists of an almost full body (minus its hind legs) that moves semi-realistically and requires 3 people to operate alongside its human counterpart: one inside the body, one for the tail, and one for the head.[5] The production embarked on its tour beginning at Curve in Leicester and starred Samantha Womack as the White Witch; Ammar Duffus, Robyn Sinclair, Shaka Kalokoh, and Karise Yansen as the Pevensies; and Chris Jared as Aslan.

After a successful UK tour, the show later transferred to the West End in 2022, beginning a limited run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London on 28 July, running into early 2023.[6] A majority of the cast are reprising their roles, including Womack, Duffus, Sinclair, Kalokoh, and Jared as the White Witch, the Pevensies, and Aslan respectively.[4]

Principle Casts[edit]

Critical Reception[edit]

The Leeds production received positive reviews. For WhatsOnStage, Matt Trueman wrote that "Cookson's staging...is strange, unsettling and scary, yet wondrous and magical all the same,...[instilling] a rich theatricality."[10]

The Bridge production also received favorable reviews. For Time Out, Andrzej Lukowski wrote, "Cookson and designer Rae Smith delight in the novel's eccentricities rather than fight them: their Narnia is a DIY-inflected nirvana where a very funny sight gag about talking animals communicating via cans on strings can sit next to Elphinstone being genuinely terrifying, swelling to enormous height as cackling fiends gather around her."[11]

The UK Tour and West End production received positive reviews. According to Arifa Akbar for The Guardian, "Fentiman’s touring production fits this enormous West End stage like a glove. Tom Paris’s design is a wonder, with a giant clock face as a backdrop to mark the disparity between real-world time and Narnia’s parallel universe...Womack's White Witch is all hard edges and glaring looks yet resists becoming a pantomime villain."[12] Humphries' puppet designs and Olié's direction in particular received praise; for East Midlands Theatre, Phil Lowe wrote, "The puppetry aspects are a revelation and the all roaring, all majestic vision of the giant Aslan puppet and Chris Jared’s human personification are magnificent. The much smaller puppet for Schrödinger the cat belonging to Professor Kirk (Johnson Willis) is universally loved with [the] audience."[13]

Where is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe playing in London?

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Where was Narnia filmed in UK?